It is well known to make coffee-based beverages by extraction of roasted ground coffee with an aqueous medium such as water. Typically, the water temperature required to produce a consumer-acceptable beverage is greater than 85° C. Beverage preparation machines have been produced that make coffee-based beverages from beverage cartridges (also known as pods or capsules) containing roasted ground coffee. Typically such beverage cartridges which are designed to produce a single serving of beverage contain up to 7 g of roasted ground coffee having a dry Helos particle size distribution of 320 to 480 microns. Such beverage preparation machines typically heat water to a temperature greater than 85° C. and pump the water through an extraction chamber in the beverage cartridge.
It is also known to produce coffee-based beverages using unheated water at ambient room temperature (typically 20 to 25° C.) via a process called “cold-press”. This requires steeping roasted ground coffee for an extended period of time of at least 3 hours, and preferably 6 to 8 hours, in unheated water. The time required to produce a beverage in this manner makes the process unsuitable for on-demand beverage delivery.